In Stephan Theil’s “The Incredible Shrinking Continent,” he writes that though immigrants are being scapegoated for the economic crises in Europe they are actually necessary for future economic growth. Immigration is inevitable, so Europe should accept the influx and use it to their own economic advantage.
This article echoed some of the sentiments we’ve read in “Germany in Transit” about how immigrants are necessary for economic growth because of the declining birthrate. The intolerance of immigrants is short-sighted and is caused by scapegoating immigrants for the increasing unemployment, which is ironic because the majority of immigrants there are low-paid while immigrant access to higher-paying jobs is limited by laws protecting native workers. But these limits should be lifted or else Europe will have to support an immigrant underclass and combat a lack of skilled workers.
